A lot of times when you get into a routine of working out you are thrilled at the results you get in the first few weeks.
Once you get past the soreness and get into a regular routine of going to the gym you see consistent gains.
Fat is melting off and muscle is building up at a good rate.
It is about that time that a lot of people hit what is known as a plateau or sticking point.
You are still working out just as hard but you are just not seeing the gains you were previously.
This is common and fortunately it is something you can beat.
Over time your body is great at adapting to tough conditions.
You go to the gym and tear it down with weights and it responds to this by rebuilding the muscles bigger and stronger.
After some time the body adapts though and gets used to this routine.
Your body learns that this new process of getting torn down in exactly the same way each week is normal and it overcomes the workout without as much teardown (and consequently not as much rebuilding).
This is when you have to regain control and outsmart your body.
Your muscles get used to the same old routine so you have to change up your workouts.
It is a good idea to switch up the exercises you do every 6 weeks or so.
This will keep the body guessing and also bring other muscles into play that have been taking a backseat.
For example if you are doing bench every Monday you might want to switch from just using a straight bar bench to doing flat bench flys.
This will change up the routine and bring in a lot more controlling muscles that do not have to work when using a straight bar.
This alone can help to bust through the sticking point on your bench press.
Another thing to try to get through a plateau is to make sure and utilize a spotter in order to get the most out of each rep.
When you get to the last few reps of a set you are far more inclined to just rack the weight without a spotter.
Even using spot bars on a rack can give you the extra peace of mind to crank out a few more reps.
These last reps are the ones in which your body makes the most gains and gets the most benefit.
The first few reps are just to get you tired to make the last few reps really count.
The more you concentrate on getting the most out of those last reps the less you will have to deal with sticking points.
One final thing to remember when working out and trying to get through a sticking point is to accentuate the negative of a rep.
The negative of a rep is the portion of motion in which you are returning the weight to its original position on a machine or lowering the bar on a free weight exercise.
It is the non active part of a motion.
During this motion you are still using your muscles to control the weight.
If you just rush through this portion of the motion you are missing out on half of the whole workout.
Be sure to slow this part of the rep down and get the most out of your entire workout.